Buffy The Vampire Slayer

LOS ANGELES - Now that "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is finished, fans might think actor Anthony Stewart Head would be eager to escape his image as Giles - the proper British librarian whose book-sense helped conquer evil.

Not at all, he said.

"To me that’s the best part of the show and the best part of the business. Occasionally you are blessed with the chance to do something that people are so taken with they hold it dear," Head told The Associated Press in a recent interview.

The 49-year-old actor once was known only as the gentleman who falls in love with his beautiful neighbor over coffee in a series of 1990s "Taster’s Choice" TV commercials.

"People said, ’That’s going to be around your neck for the rest of your life,’" Head recalled. "I didn’t have a problem with it."

He and "Buffy" creator Joss Whedon hope to make a TV movie in coming years called "Ripper," which would focus on Head’s frequently bemused character’s darker side.

Although the idea could become a TV series, he said, neither he nor Whedon want the character to get mired in a monster-of-the-week format.

"He said he’s more interested in the character of Giles and what happens to him alone, his solitude," Head said.

Head, a singer who released the album "Music for Elevators" last year with collaborator George Sarah, also co-stars in the upcoming father-daughter comedy "I’ll Be There," with opera star Charlotte Church and writer-director Craig Ferguson.

"I’m very grateful," Head said. "Life is extremely full."